Arrangement and method for optically capturing a track

Abstract

An arrangement for optically capturing a railroad track includes a carrier device, a camera, and two light sources. The arrangement is mountable on a carrier vehicle that is movable on rails. The alignment of the two light sources and thus the central axes of the emitted light radiation or waves enclose an acute angle with a longitudinal axis of the rail. The light sources are coupled with the camera via control signal lines. The triggering or activation of the light sources is effected via the control signal lines by a predefined control signal. This achieves detailed, sharp image contours that allow high-precision image evaluation and object recognition at the highest possible working speed.

1 - 14 . (canceled) 
     
     
         15 . An arrangement for optically capturing a track, the arrangement being attachable on a carrier vehicle that is movable on rails, the arrangement comprising:
 a carrier device, a camera, and two light sources mountable on the carrier vehicle;   said two light sources and a center axis of a light radiation emitted thereby enclosing an acute angle with a longitudinal axis of a respective rail;   wherein said light sources are coupled with said camera via control signal lines, and said light sources are triggered or activated via said control signal lines by way of a predefined control signal.   
     
     
         16 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , wherein said camera, seen in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the rail, is arranged substantially centrally between said light sources, with a camera axis being aligned approximately orthogonally to the longitudinal axis of the rail, and an acute angle being enclosed between the center axes of the light sources and a horizontal ground plane. 
     
     
         17 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , wherein said camera is an RGB video camera with three color channels, namely, red, green, and blue. 
     
     
         18 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , which further comprises an optical color filter associated with said camera, said optical color filter being configured to only allow a defined range or defined sub-ranges of an optical spectrum or a defined bandwidth of a wavelength range of the incident light to enter optics of said camera. 
     
     
         19 . The arrangement according to  claim 18 , wherein the optical color filter is disposed at a camera lens of said camera. 
     
     
         20 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , which further comprises a device for generating an air curtain in front of said camera. 
     
     
         21 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , wherein the air curtain is an area of a uniform airflow in front of said camera. 
     
     
         22 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , wherein said light sources are LED light sources. 
     
     
         23 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , wherein each light source has a respectively predefined, fixed wavelength with a corresponding color spectrum. 
     
     
         24 . The arrangement according to  claim 15 , which further comprises a computing unit with an integrated internal memory coupled to said camera. 
     
     
         25 . A method for optically capturing a track, the method comprising:
 providing an arrangement according to  claim 15 ;   activating the camera and the light sources at a beginning of a work process, by triggering the light sources synchronously by way of the control signal, and, simultaneously capturing a track point by the camera, and recording image data obtained by the camera by a computing unit.   
     
     
         26 . The method according to  claim 25 , which comprises storing the image data acquired by the computing unit in a buffer memory for later or time-delayed use, or the image data are read in directly by the computing unit for further processing. 
     
     
         27 . The method according to  claim 25 , which comprises separating raw image data acquired by the camera and read into the computing unit into individual color channels, and subtracting the image data or image information contained in two color channels from each other. 
     
     
         28 . The method according to  claim 27 , which comprises subtracting the color channels red and green, or the color channels red and blue, from each other. 
     
     
         29 . The method according to  claim 27 , which comprises evaluating, interpreting, and assessing image information obtained by subtracting the two color channels in the computing unit by at least one process selected from the group consisting of pattern recognition algorithms, text recognition algorithms, optical character recognition software processing, methods of artificial intelligence, and neural network processing. 
     
     
         30 . The method according to  claim 25 , which comprises generating the control signal by a controller unit integrated in the camera and outputting the control signal via the control signal lines. 
     
     
         31 . The method according to  claim 25 , which comprises generating the control signal by the computing unit or a signal generator and outputting the control signal via the control signal lines.